Thomas McDonnell to Star in Producer Shawn Levy’s THE SPECTACULAR NOW; 500 DAYS OF SUMMER Writing Team to Adapt

Actor Thomas McDonnell (The Forbidden Kingdom, Prom) has been tapped to play the lead in director Lee Toland Krieger’s (The Vicious Kind) adaptation of Tim Tharp’s novel The Spectacular Now. The project has been gestating for a few years, with Summer helmer Marc Webb working on it before he went off to work on the Spider-Man reboot. Variety reports that Shawn Levy (Real Steel) will produce, with the script being written by the writing team behind (500) Days of Summer, Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber. The story revolves around a wild, hard-drinking hard-partying high-school senior who starts dating a shy, insecure girl who ends up changing his life. Hit the jump to read the synopsis of the novel.

Here’s the synopsis for The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp:

Unlike most high school seniors, Sutter Keely—the narrator of this smart, superbly written novel—is not concerned with the future. Hes the life of the party, and hes interested in the Spectacular Now. In stream of consciousness–style prose, Sutter describes his lurching from one good time to the next: he carries whiskey in a flask, and once its mixed into his 7Up, anything is possible. He will jump into the pool fully clothed, climb up a tree and onto his ex-girlfriends roof or cruise around all hours of the night. Without ever deviating from the voice of the egocentric Sutter, Tharp (Knights of the Hill Country) fully develops all of the ancillary characters, such as socially awkward Aimee, the new girlfriend who tries to plan a future with this quintessential live-for-the-moment guy. Readers will be simultaneously charmed and infuriated by Sutter as his voice holds them in thrall to his all-powerful Now. (Amazon)

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